Oranstakar muttered, “My emissaries to Ori tell me that your people were most uncooperative and unhelpful. They had to restore the taken souls.”
“Your people arrived after all the hard work was done. For it, they were richly rewarded. It would have been nothing to destroy them outright for presuming to take their claimed half of the treasure. I allowed the restoration of souls by your morons but if they get in my way again.”
Oranstakar bristled and turned away. After a few moments of calming down, he turned to face Alerius, “I had forgotten how difficult these discussions can be. Given that we want the same thing, how about this – I want to view and access any pieces of your part of the treasure, maybe even borrow some for study.”
“We could fight for it, victor takes all.” Alerius flexed his gauntlets and smiled razor teeth at the gold.
Oranstakar looked at the fire dragon patriarch and then began laughing. “Oh my brother, your sense of humor comes through at the oddest times! And here I had thought you must have lost it in your obsession with the humans. Why did you bring Sai?”
Alerius scowled at the gold dragon, “Too scared to even try? How long has it been since we last fought?”
“In these forms? I wonder.” Oranstakar materialized a golden long sword in his hand and stared down its blade at Alerius.
“Any form, anywhere. Say it. The treasure taken in Ori should suffice. Victor takes all.”
“True, true though I do not trust your accounting methods. And your son Blade hurt my knight’s feelings. I wonder if the truce would even allow a simple duel…”
“The god of these lands would make an exception, I’m sure. With the right persuasion.” A red sword surrounded by black lightning appeared in Alerius’ hand and he looked down its blade at the gold dragon. “I brought Sai as a witness. Also because, unlike me, he is not distracted from the reason we came here.”
The golden sword vanished and Oranstakar smiled. “Alerius, you tempt me. But we must alas fight another day. And you are right. Sai is here!”
Alerius pointed to Sai who stepped forward. “I would like to offer my services to you, for the creation of a golem, your choice.” Sai bowed low.
“At what cost I wonder,” Oranstakar said as he ran his fingers along Sai's form.
“No cost, just an agreement regarding more dragons."
The gold let go of Sai and stepped back with concern showing in his demeanor. "More dragons? Perhaps the cost is too high for my liking." A scroll appeared in Oranstakar’s hand and he opened it. It held a detailed map of the Bloodstone Valley. “It would help if you tell me where the sceptre will be. Taysor shall increase its units at that location.” His finger moved over the map to Haven, “And we shall deploy a battalion here and here.”
Alerius growled low and violently. “That location, is near a new mine shaft. You may as well ask for a bloodstone.”
“May I then? My concerns will cost a bloodstone. Either delivered to me or my battalion will find one here,” and he tapped his finger on the map.
Alerius thought for a moment then replied, “Very well Oranstakar. I will instruct the Bloodstone Campaign to expect your battalion at the Seventh Fortress by spring? For however long it takes you to build this golem, the Seventh shall be presided over by Taysor.”
Oranstakar bowed and turned to Sai. "Tell me about these other dragons Sai."
Sai spoke just one word: Cor'tanos. "You wish to bring the heretics back? Even the Father refused them. Why and why now?"
"They seek to come back before their extinction. The shadow realms are killing them, diminishing them. They will come back, with or without us brother. With us, we can shape and help them. Without us, I have no doubt, the Jade God or some other abyssal or hell power takes that opportunity. Besides Sai, and a bloodstone, I offer you a registry of the shadow dragons so that you shall always know where and who and what they are."
Oranstakar summoned another book and flipped through some pages. "Bahamut cast the shadow dragons out. Unlike your Queen who chose to hold them in hate, they are not welcome in heaven or this world. I'm not sure I can abide their presence without challenge."
Alerius held out his hand and a transcribed page from the Darkhold appeared. "This is a copied page of the Darkhold regarding the shadow patriarch. Read it."
Taking the page in at a glance, Oranstakar nodded. "I see. You wish for your paladins to become hosts to possess the shadow wyrms. It will create a new order of knights, powerful beyond human imagination."
"Yes, I'm surprised I am so transparent to you."
The gold dragon chuckled and observed, "With you reds, it's always a straight line to war applications. The treaty requires parity brother. What do you propose?"
"A beginning and a foundation. My children are torn and tested by war and prophecy. There is no quiet space to forge them into this. There are perhaps two who can make this happen and they shall be the beginning. Our truce requires parity in this matter. I await your proposed parity however you propose." Seeing the gold look at Sai, the emperor added, "But you may not lay claim to my children."
"Very well. For parity, I will require access to your research for ten human years –"
"No," Alerius growled.
" – and assistance from Sai to work three bloodstones of my personal choosing into mighty artefacts against the shadow dragons."
"To the second term, no as well. You may have one. The one you have laid claim to. You will never have access to my research. While your people hold the Seventh, I will grant any bloodstone mines found to Taysor for ten years, exclusive."
"Two additional bloodstones then brother, and Sai's assistance in creation. That is my final offer. If the evil of the shadow clan cannot be contained, I will never compromise with you." Oranstakar summoned another book and while flipping pages, he absently commented, "and you'd be a fool to not create such weapons as well." When Alerius said nothing, the gold looked up and smiled. "I see, you already have. Very well. One bloodstone, Sai's assistance in creation, and my selection from the shadow weapons already created."
Alerius turned and while dragonshifting to leave said, "These terms are acceptable to me but you must agree, your people at the Seventh are still part of Dar Ana’s command structure. We cannot risk a war between our people in that place." Without looking for agreement, Alerius’ shoulders shrugged as his wings unfurled and he dragonshifted high into the sky. He immediately turned south and returned home.
Looking over the city of Commerce, Alerius allowed his focus to shift out of the River and enjoyed the twinkling chaos of humanity as it pursued its passions. He noted the devout, the passionate, and the lackluster all intermingling in the River. It would be good to return back to Morbatten where all of his children beamed like bright stars in the night sky. He let loose a terrible roar at the sun and watched as those lacking fervor suddenly came to life with fear. He chuckled knowing that Oranstakar would exact a price for that. “Let him try!” and he roared again as he crossed the city’s southern wall.
Chapter Sixty Eight - Calvin's Foe
Calvin stretched back and idly took notes. It was hard to pay attention because the priestess who had entered to observe was seductively gorgeous. Below him on the stage of the amphitheater, an old man droned on and on about battle tactics and their evolution from the days of the barbarian tribes up to the current age. The other students seemed so engaged, but all Calvin could think about was how he would be visiting a local tavern where worked a very beautiful waitress. Not as beautiful as the priestess, but still. He found it hard to focus, to concentrate these days. His time as a knight had shown he could do it. He should be a knight. It was his right, his destiny. He sighed and rubbed his face trying to tune back into the lecture.
“The Ancients,” the term he and Morbatten used for the northeastern barbarian tribes, “would set ambushes and then swarm their prey. Their earliest prey consisted of plains animals and larger wild game, but as they wandered more and more in the Barrie
r Mountains, they encountered prey they could not eat. Ogres, gnolls, and orcs. These enemies served as a honing wheel for the Ancients. They had to evolve. How did they?”
Ayden, the girl with the terribly scarred face, answered, “They sent out scouts to spy and then began modeling their own units to resemble them. Fast and ferocious fighters were modeled after the gnolls. Large and strong ones after ogres. And so on, but the real change was the discovery of iron.”
“Very good Ayden. Tell me class, between the two – tactics versus tools – which is most important and why?”
A short and wiry Halfling girl behind Calvin answered and said, “Tactics. If you can’t outthink or outsmart your enemy, the quality or type of tools becomes almost irrelevant.”
Calvin raised his hand and when it was his turn he said, “I think there has to be a balance. A small child can outthink an ogre, but will still lose. At best the child can only hide and hope the ogre moves on. More so than iron, wouldn't magic and divine spells from the Goddess matter more than anything? Who needs an iron spear when you have the dragon emperor mentoring you?”
The discussion became quite heated as the class divided into various opinions. As they spoke, doors to the back of the stage opened and soldiers dragged a gnoll onto the stage. The nine foot tall creature full of muscle, sinew, and topped by a jackal’s head spit and howled at the soldiers. Its disheveled appearance and wounds seemed mostly self-inflicted as the beast pulled at the metal chains.
From the other side of the stage, an Ancient stepped. It was a girl probably no more than nine years old. She walked to the center of the stage and bowed. Behind her, another child walked onto the stage. This one, a normal Tanian, also bowed. Neither wore armor. Neither carried weapons. The instructor said, “We’re going to have a demonstration of a place where neither tactics nor tools really apply. Both of these children are gifted with different kinds of magic.”
The Ancient stepped forward and composed herself. As she did so, the gnoll looked up at her fearfully and then with increasing anger. At a signal from her, the gnoll’s irons snapped loose and the creature leapt at the girl child. Everyone held their breaths as the girl, without flinching, looked on at the gnoll’s onslaught. Its hand tipped with dirty claws raked down at her head and then at the last second, it stopped. Calm soothed its snarled and toothy face and its hand relaxed to instead the pat the girl on the head.
The girl took the monster’s hand and turned to the audience and both of them bowed. The gnoll picked her up and spun her around the stage playfully. She laughed and giggled when the gnoll threw her some thirty feet into the air and then caught her. He put her down and bowed again. The girl pointed to the young boy and the gnoll nodded his head. Straightening his curled back, the gnoll carefully walked over to the boy and amidst much drooling and spitting said, “My friend says you’re scaring her. Go away.”
The boy replied, “And what if I don’t? You going to stop me?”
The gnoll’s face twisted into an evil grin and he howled, “Your blood!” The clawed hands went straight for the boy’s neck but scant inches from the boy’s body, lighting suddenly coursed through the monster electrocuting it. The boy caught the energy as if ropes and focused it down to the gnoll’s convulsing body wrapping it in ever more lightning. After several seconds of noise and searing energy, the boy let go of the energy. The gnoll looked at the girl and winced. Though wounded, it was still very much alive.
The girl walked over to the gnoll and said, “Thank you for delivering my message. You’re a great warrior and a mighty protector.” At her touch, the gnoll healed and then fell asleep. The girl turned to the class, “My father is a member of the dire wolf tribe. To be a full member of the tribe, the member must possess a special something here.” She tapped her head. “My mother and her mother and so on back to the emperor’s coming have had an empathic ability to sense things. We just knew. Like I knew the gnoll wanted to live, to escape, to eat, to survive. I offered him that and he leapt at it because that’s what he most wanted. I’ll take questions later.”
The boy stepped up to her side. “I’m not like her. My father retired from the dog soldiers and married my mom. Early on in testing, I scored quite well in certain magical abilities. I was placed with the Mage’s Guild when I was six years old. While many people can use magic through study, the guild says I use magic without thinking, like a berserker. Things happen and when I respond, sometimes it is lightning, fire, ice, whatever. I can’t really control how the magic responds. Also, I don’t know that I will ever develop a defensive ability. Like you saw, the magic tries to eliminate the threat rather than protect me. I’ll take questions later too.”
The instructor came up and they gave the children a round of applause. “The power exhibited by both is remarkable. The Dire Wolf Tribe is one of those tribes that, should you ever do your genealogy, if it is available to you, you’ll find most of us have some. The emperor wanted all of us to have either gifts like this or some resistance to such gifts. Like this girl here, the gifts can be extraordinary.” He pointed to the boy, “And the Mage’s Guild finds boys like this and raises them up to be fighters, but unlike a battle mage, they fight with the fighters in front line combat. Their magic is too uncontrollable for most applications but the empire values their contributions as cavalry and battle mages. Questions?”
Ayden asked, “What are the limits of your abilities?”
The girl spoke first, “I can only work with creatures that can understand me. For example, if this gnoll did not understand our language, or stupid creatures like a forest animal. And when I press into the mind of another human, sometimes they can resist me. Go ahead, try it. I’m going to try and make you sneeze. Resist it.” Ayden’s face immediately scrunched up and her eyes began watering. She kept beginning to sneeze and would then choke it back. “You want to sneeze but in reality, your body knows you don’t. It’ll drive you crazy though, later today, when you do sneeze. You’ll wonder, was it because of that little girl or because you actually had to sneeze?”
The class chuckled. “Now, lets see if I can make you feel really different. Emotional control is much much harder. Maybe there is a boy here you like? The problem is that I don’t really know what love is and so that becomes a limit for me until I'm older. Don’t worry Ayden, I won’t tell anyone who you like. But also, you shouldn’t worry about the scars. He doesn’t care. He actually likes them. I’m going to stop now but keep up your resistance. You did a good job.” A man next to Ayden sneezed and then one after another in a straight line, each person in turn sneezed.
The boy said, “My biggest limit is that I don’t really have control over how this works. One night I woke up and my room was on fire. Another time, I wanted to go swimming and when I jumped in the water, it froze solid. Moreover, I’ll never be able to do something delicate like making people sneeze. With my luck and the way this works, I’d end up drowning all of you in poison gas. The group I am with, we are very accident prone. I think that is the greatest limitation. Things happen and even amongst ourselves, we’re never quite sure if it’s because one of us did it or it’s something that just randomly happened.”
Calvin asked, “When you used lightning on the gnoll, how does your lightning compare with a trained mage?”
“It’s raw. I’m always at full power. A normal mage can fine tune the lightning. They never expect the lightning to do anything other than what they summoned it for. In my case, with all of you watching, I just felt grateful that the lightning stayed focused on the gnoll. But, there are older wild mages like us who are more able to direct it. They say it's instinctive so, while they can't summon lightning, if the task is best suited for lightning, more often than not, lightning is what happens.”
The class ended after a few more questions and then the guards removed the gnoll. They had a short break and then the last session of the day started, “Knightly Orders and Heraldry”. A different instructor walked into the room. Unlike the last one, this next
instructor wore full plate armor and walked with purpose. Even though he appeared to be older than Calvin’s father, the man’s carriage was strong and his eyes bright. He snapped to attention and his presence pulled the class to silent attention.
“Welcome!” he boomed. “You are here because either this is where you wanted to be or the knighthood determined you would be better as an officer. As such, we are going to talk about the knights. One of you impress me. I need a volunteer.”
A few hands went up and Calvin was unsurprised to see Ayden volunteering. The man chose someone else though. Once on the stage, the instructor demanded, “By looking at me, I want you to tell me who I am, starting now.”
“Um, okay. Lets see. You served two tours in Bloodstone. You have the Winter Warrior star. You have three commendations for honor in combat and another for service to the Temple – “
“Am I a knight?” He drew his sword and stabbed it down into the wooden stage. The blade ignited with fire that did not burn him.
“Um, I don’t see anything, any sign of a paladin order – “
“Correct! I am not a knight. What am I?”
The sword’s flame made it hard for the student to see. “I’m sorry my lord, but I cannot tell. Is there a medal I can’t see perhaps?”
The instructor extinguished the sword’s flame. “I am a captain. An officer in the ranks of the dog soldiers, same as you will be someday. My ensign of rank is my sword. Same as the paladins but without a sign of any paladin order.” He tapped his sword’s pommel. “This sword is different than the normal officer swords. Once you pass, you will all be sergeants. Sergeants carry the swords you all think of as officer swords. At the next rank, of captain, you receive a special sword, called an officer's blade. The sword, not you, is promoted. I am a captain because my sword’s rank is that of a captain. Any questions? No, good. Lets talk about paladins. There are orders. What are some of the Orders you have met?”
Malcor's Story Page 48